Can i correct this slight mess up ive made, its my own fault really.

I recently bought some Maguiars PlastX to have a go at removing a tiny scratch on my laptop, it was a deepish scratch but only a small one in a small place on my laptops plastic surface. I have a Sony vaio that has a sort of very dark grey matt type finish, i didn`t think at the time that this would possibly remove the matt finish on my laptop in the small area i was working on, its now left me with no scratch but a very shiny finish in that area which is the opposite of my laptops overall finish which is a dull grey/matt finish.

Is their any way i can get the finish back to what it was ? Its my own fault as i should have thought at the time that the laptop has a special matt type dull grey finish and this would remove it, sometimes you just don`t think.

 

no. all you can do now is buff the whole surface that was matte to a glossy finish

 

sandpaper the whole plastic surface and repaint it with spray paint.

 

Its just an area of about 3 inches in width and height about an inch, i was thinking that maybe i can get some matt aerosol paint thats virtually identical in colour and mask off everywhere else and give it a very lightly light coat so that it dullens the area rather than have a shine. Would that work, i mean a very light coat, hardly any paint ?

 

it would probably stand out more than Waldo in his red & white stripped shirt. Even if it's a little off, and you's always know... I think that if you were to do something like that, take off that whole piece and do it to that section so that there is no area that's just "special"

 

anything you add will be noticable. depends how picky you are. it will never blend into the stock matte finish the way it was i hate to say. the only real fix as the above mentioned is to sand down spray with texture and re paint

 

Oh well, you live and learn. I won`t be doing that in a rush again, its me being very picky really as you can`t see it from most angles but its one of them, i know its there!

 

The other option is to replace the plastic portion.

Check e-bay.

 

1. Go to a paint supply company and get yourself a media blaster (looks sort of like an airbrush)
2. Get yourself an aircompressor.
3. Get some medium-fine sand medium. In this case do not use crushed walnut shells. You will probably want aluminum oxide or crushed quarts.
4. Set the media blaster to a low PSI... 10 to start. Work on a scrap peice of plastic.
5. Mask EVERYTHING that does not need to be blasted with blue panters tape. You may want to remove the cover and just blast that. This stuff is small and gets everywhere.
6. Get a bunny suit or go outdoors to blast the media. Make sure to wear a breather and goggles.
7. Blast away!

Its not as difficult as it may sound. Its also a great wat to surface prep plastics for new paint. Work slow and consistant. Do not shoot one area for an extended period of time. You want smooth passes with the blaster starting before the cover, sweeping over it at an equal distance and stopping after fully passing over it.

 

take a photo so we can see the extent of the damage.

 

Sorry about the poor quality as i only have a small digi camera that doesn`t do close ups very well, under the blue sticker you will hopefully see a light area thats a different colour to the left hand side of the laptop. The colour under the blue sticker should be the same as the left. I think i rubbed off the top coating when trying to remove a light scratch.

Could i possibly mask over all the areas that are ok and spray a very light coating of matt lacquer over the area where i rubbed off the top finish ?

 

New idea... move the sticker, or get a new sticker and just cover it up....

win.

 

you are very picky, thats soooo small but i think it would actually bug me too so that makes the both of us =P

 

Yeh, its just a slight annoyance more than anything. At certain angles when it catches the light it stands out hence me wanting to try and dull it a bit with a thin coating of clear matt lacquer.

You can`t really do that, it has a matching sticker on the other side at exactly the same height and you can`t drop that sticker down because of the latch mechanism for the lid thats just below it..

 

Lol...why on earth do you have all these stickers on? You know your config by now don't you?

 

They are not lightly stuck on, i think Sony welded them on :laugh: It keeps it all original i suppose, they don`t look to bad in the flesh.

 

Just leave it alone. It'l go back to matte after a few months.

 

Well, similar to what grasshopper said, I'd say everything will be semi-shiny given some use in a few months. That spot will be less shiny and matte areas will be shinier. Its just wear and tear.

 

i would remove those huge sony stickers.

 

hmm intersting if it really bother you, I woudl either get a new paint job for around $300 or tey and find a skin that covers the palm rests of a laptop. Otherwise, I wouldn't mess with it as you don't want to make it look worse. I don't think it looks that bad so I doubt most people will notice it.

 

Eh ? Anyway back on topic, surely this can`t be that difficult, its just a very small area thats had the top finish rubbed off slightly on a bit of plastic. I`m not trying to do a full paint job on a car :laugh: